A young computer publishing house, Apress (not aPress or APress or A Press, Apress), is gaining increasing geek attention for its allegedly progressive treatment of authors.
The lore of Apress holds that its founders are geeks who had had it up to here with the unfairness of existing geek-book contracts. While this is a coded reference to O’Reilly, which does apparently pay poorly, the criticism is actually fair in general. It is not unheard-of to find a publishing contract that, for example, pays you lower royalties on sales outside the U.S. than inside, or might actually pay lower percentage royalties on larger increments of sales. (The more popular your book, the less you earn per copy.) They’re even cheap with free copies of your book for your own use.
Popular mythology also holds that Apress acts like a partnership: Publish a book with them and they give you shares in the company. This, supposedly, works to counter the master/slave relationship of traditional publishing.
Even Dave Winer talks up Apress. “I’ve been hearing great things about Apress. It was described to me as an author’s book publishing company. If you write a book for them you get stock. Right on.”
That is the lore.
For the purposes of review and commentary, let me explain in my own words the mild advantages and severe disadvantages of Apress contracts. Consider it a form of public service. If you are planning to write a computer book, these lessons may be useful to you.
Joel on Software mentioned that “his publisher” was looking for an author of a book on accessibility. Since I had a ready-made proposal sitting here for a book on Web access (currently under consideration by two other publishers), I perked up. I eventually received a message from an Apress editor.
After submitting my existing proposal, I immediately received a wildly enthusiastic E-mail saying, in effect, "Let’s do it.” This is not at all remotely how the publishing industry works, with the possible exception of quickie tie-in books linked to a news event (like Karla Homolka or the Clinton impeachment). It takes months just to get to the contract stage.
Ah, yes, the contract. This is where the lore breaks down. Apress has two models of contract:
Note that, in the Æron Chair Version, you front the money, wait to get reimbursed, and then slog away for months without receiving a dime. And you have to pay the money back if Apress rejects your book and you want to publish it elsewhere.
Very progressive.
In nearly all other respects, Apress contracts are no better than the industry norm. And in one particular way, they are significantly worse.
How do I know? I have an Apress contract and a contract from a Competing Technology Publisher.
Let's look at similarities first.
Apress contracts offer a couple of clear advantages:
Apress contracts offer quite modest advantages over the Competition. And one severe disadvantage: They’re nonnegotiable.
Apress sends you a contract. (In my case, it wasn’t even discussed whether I’d get the advance or the Æron Chair version. It was the latter.) You sign it and start writing.
No changes are permitted whatsoever.
Does that sound like a contract or an ultimatum?
It gets worse. Occasionally, contracts are altered by Apress’s board of directors. Retroactively.
So let’s recap:
How is this an author’s book company?
The Apress contract makes no mention at all of earning shares in the company after the book is published. The editor I was dealing with confirmed that it’s true.
This sounds a bit like the Fraternity Hazing Ritual model of book publishing, doesn’t it? Sign on with the ultimatum, get through the naked push-ups into a jar of Hellmann’s Dijonnaise and the elephant walk, and we’ll cut you in on the company. (The analogy preferred by the editor is some kind of apprenticeship at a law firm.)
Geek-book publishers are used to working with programmers, not writers. They’re accustomed to coaxing understandable English out of programmers, who in turn are unfamiliar with the publishing business. Are programmer types willing and able to stand up for their rights?
Oh, probably not. They’re just so excited at the idea of writing a book that they’ll go along with more or less anything.
Well, don’t. Not with Apress, anyway. There are other fish in the sea. If you have a viable book topic, other publishers will bite. Heck, for a while there I was courting three publishers. Now I’m down to “only” two. Something might happen or nothing might happen. But what won’t happen is my giving in to an Apress ultimatum.
“Author’s book publishing company” my arse.
Anyway, I signed on the dotted line with New Riders Publishing and am writing the book Building Accessible Websites for that house.
Updated 2002.05.05
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